holidays | kimberly ah

Feb 17 2015

Hasegawa Happy Hour – Valentine Edition

For Valentine’s Day, Naoto went to Freddy’s and picked up a dozen meatballs and we stayed in and hosted a Hasegawa Happy Hour. I made “Sweetheart Manhattans” and we ate spaghetti and meatballs, salad, cookies, and gelato…it was quite a night.

I’m a big fan of Leopold Brothers Michigan Tart Cherry Liqueur and I’m happy to have a bottle back in my arsenal again. So I made up a cocktail that is not as good as my favorite cocktail at Amelia’s, but comes pretty close. I named it the Sweetheart Manhattan, but it’s really not too sweet…it’s just filled with love.

Sweetheart Manhattans

2 oz rye whiskey

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/2 oz cherry liqueur

dash of orange bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice. Strain into cocktail glasses and garnish with a Luxardo cherry. Enjoy with friends on Valentine’s Day, or any other day. Cocktails are better than flowers anyway…

Tagged celebrations, cocktails, food, holidays, vintage

Feb 13 2015

5 Comments

celebrations, crafty adventures, holidays, Letter Month, Office Supplies, snail mail, vintage

Vintage Stamp Valentines

I’ve been making some handmade Valentines for pen pals and friends since January. Yet, somehow, I am not done. I get distracted too easily, and Presley joins me and naps on my supplies, which slows things down too.

I decided to make some cards that looked a little bit like envelopes (similar to my calling cards for ex Postal Facto last year.) I started with some 4-bar cards and added pink and red vintage (or Japanese) stamps and a variety of washi tapes. I typed the message “You put the stamp on my envelope, Valentine!” on labels or directly on the cards. The labeled ones kind of look more like envelopes, but hopefully the silly message kind of makes sense.

They were a lot of fun to make and I was happy to be able to spend out some of my vintage stamp collection…although now I feel compelled to build up my red and pink stash again!

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope your mailbox is full of love this weekend!

Tagged celebrations, crafts, diy, holidays, mail art, office supplies, snail mail, vintage, washi tape

Feb 05 2015

6 Comments

crafty adventures, holidays, snail mail, Valentine's Day

Easy Printmaking For Kids (& Adults)

Last week, I quickly shared about my thrift store find, Tomie dePaola’s Things to Make and Do for Valentine’s Day. When I got to this printmaking craft, I was really excited because I’ve done something like this before. I think it’s a really fun project–for kids and adults–and a good introduction to block printing without investing in a ton of materials.

Here are the instructions starring Tomie’s cute kids and cuter cat: Tomie de Paola Things to Make and Do for Valentine's Day A few notes:

I know styrofoam is a horrible thing for the environment and a few cities in the U.S. are banning the use of styrofoam take-out containers. Think of this as re-purposing something evil. I got my styrofoam trays with fish and vegetables at Mitsuwa.
I used a brayer because I already had one on hand from a printmaking class, but a rolling pin works just fine and may be even better for kids since it’s bigger and easier to handle.
The book suggests poster paints. I used Martha Stewart craft paint because I had some already. It worked fine, but it did dry quickly. So, I tried oil-based printmaking ink, which I also had. It worked perfectly but I would highly suggest you don’t use it if you are working with kids. It’s messy, permanent and dries so slowly.

I made my “block” by tracing the outline of the Japanese character for “friend”. I flipped it around and traced it onto my styrofoam with a sharp pencil. I went over the outline a couple of times to make a deep enough channel to get a clean outline. If I had pressed too lightly, the outline would not be as clear.My prints are imperfect, but that’s okay. It takes some practice to get the right amount of ink on the styrofoam–I need some more practice! And, if this oil-based ink ever dries, I will cut them apart into little cards and send them out as Valentines.

If you try this project, I’d love to hear about it! Happy Valentine making!

Tagged crafts, diy, holidays, mail art, snail mail, thrifting

Jan 29 2015

2 Comments

adventures, holidays, in my library, snail mail, thrifted, Valentine's Day, vintage

Things To Make & Do For Valentine’s Day

I spent a few days with my parents last week and of course we went thrift shopping. I was in the store less than two minutes when this sweet book by Tomie dePaola jumped into my hands. It may be the best ten cents I’ve ever spent!

Tomie dePaola wrote Strega Nona and Nana Upstairs and Nana Downstairs, two of my favorite books from my days working with children. His illustrations are charming and his stories are sweet and timeless. Things to Make and Do for Valentine’s Day is a how-to book with crafts, jokes, tongue twisters, games and recipes to share for the holiday.

The book is designed for kids, but I think some of the projects are fun for adults, too. I’m going to try one out this weekend and I will report back next week. If it works out, I may use the idea for my Valentine envelopes this year.

Have you planned your Valentine’s Day cards yet? I have my prototype ready…now the real work begins.

Tagged adventures, books, celebrations, crafts, holidays, parents, shopping, snail mail, thrifting, vintage

Jan 12 2015

5 Comments

crafty adventures, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail

New Year’s Cards 2015

On January 1st, I spent the day catching up on all of my mail. I sent out a big stack of seventeen New Year’s cards and thank yous on the second.

For New Year cards, I sent three different versions–two different Japanese postcards and letterpressed greeting cards. We got the Japanese postcards at Mitsuwa again. Roughly translated, the fan one says “We humbly wish you a happy new year” and the bamboo one says “Thank you very much for all assistance rendered the previous year. We ask for your continuous guidance this year as well.” The little bamboo drawing on the bottom is a classic Japanese New Year symbol called a kadomatsu.

The greeting cards are from Saturn Press, a letterpress printing company in Maine. (They don’t have a website, but I found some information about them here, which I think is quite interesting.) The card features two juncos sitting on a branch and the quote by Rainer Maria Rilke, “And now let us welcome the new year, full of things that have never been.” I love everything Saturn Press does, but these are my favorites–from the birds to the simple phrase and the gorgeous paper stock with its deckled edge…these cards are dreamy. I put all of the cards in envelopes (even the postcards) and decorated them with washi tape, metallic stars, and old Japanese Woodblock Cavallini calendars. (I had several in my stash, so I picked out the wintry months to use. Cavallini uses artwork by Hasui Kawase, the same artist who was on our Christmas cards.)And to seal the deal, I got to use my shiny new Letter Writers Alliance member stamp. It feels good to start the year out with a stack of mail…let’s hope I can keep up the postal momentum!

Tagged crafts, holidays, Japan, letterpress, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, snail mail, washi tape

Jan 07 2015

4 Comments

Christmas, gardening, snail mail

Pretty Seed Packets

My pen pal Danielle sent me these fantastic seed packets for Christmas. They are from the Hudson Valley Seed Library as part of their special Art Packs series. Various artists’ works are used on the seed packet, making them perfect for gifts! (Danielle, you know me so well!) She sent Isis Candy Shop tomatoes, packet art done by Amy Ross. The other one, Tender Green Komatsuna, features a painting by Molly Rausch, famous for her postage stamp paintings. If you look closely, you can see that the base of the painting is a vintage Japanese postage stamp, and Molly, with her imagination and a teeny, tiny paintbrush, added the surroundings. You can see the entire painting here…isn’t it fantastic?

This gift blends all of my favorite things: mail, postage stamps and gardening! And, especially when windchills are hitting the -30°F mark, I’m really dreaming of gardening today.

Tagged Christmas, forest park, garden, gardening, holidays, Japan, snail mail

Jan 06 2015

NYE 2015 at the Golden Steer

For the third year in a row, we had New Year’s Eve dinner at the Golden Steer. Each year, the crowd has grown. Two years ago, it was just Naoto and me. Last year, we added Karen to the mix. This year, along with Karen, we added four more people–our friends Jackie, Jim, Brett and Stacy. Ending the year with good friends, good steaks (and French onion soup, tasty salads, baked potatoes and cracker baskets) and good cocktails was the best way to say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015. (I really need to do an official post about Golden Steer–its old school charm has not been captured properly in these pictures.)

After the Steer, we came back to our place and had prosecco cocktails and snacks. Jim made this Martha Stewart smoked salmon spread…soooo good! I made Chex Mix and Karen made sweets, including her famous toffee and caramels.

So far, so good, 2015.

Let’s keep it that way.

Tagged adventures, celebrations, cocktails, food, forest park, holidays

Jan 04 2015

Another Christmas Tea

Another book club holiday tea is in the books (hehe) and we’re onto a new year. December book club always falls around winter solstice, so it was rather dark all day at Peggy’s, but hopefully you can appreciate the beauty of the rooms and the table settings in spite of my dark pictures. We split into two tables, each seen above, and as always the place settings were festive and lovely. Peggy should seriously give lessons on how to set a table because I always feel like mine lack the layering that hers have. She has such a great mix of dishes to play around with, too. We started the morning with a cocktail–ginger sage prosecco. We found the recipe here and I made the syrup, which is easy and delicious and amazingly useful in other cocktails too. It’s warm and wintry, perfect for this time of the year. Bruising the sage leaf before you float it on top of your cocktail is also highly recommended.

Our menu was very similar to last year’s menu. I made ham salad tea sandwiches again, and they were served alongside pimento tea sandwiches and classic cucumber tea sandwiches. We had two kinds of scones, cherry almond and coconut, served with Devonshire cream, Meyer lemon curd, lime curd and lilikoi curd. And we had Christmas cookies and lemon squares and lots and lots of hot tea. For our book this month, we read Emma–our first dip into Jane Austen. Sadly, only a few finished the book (which is rare for us!) so the book discussion was not as long and as deep as usual. But lesson learned, choosing a lighter book in December may be the way to go. After the book discussion, we lingered on in Peggy’s comfortable home and chatted about our Christmas plans, families and other books. I’m looking forward to another year of book club, and more reading in general. I didn’t read as much as I should have in 2014, so it’s time for a fresh start. For January we are reading Ethan Frome. Edith Wharton is a favorite of mine, so I’m looking forward to it. We don’t have any other titles planned for the year, which is a preferred way to go. Last year we planned an entire year ahead and a few of us felt stuck with some of the titles. It’s nice to plan a little at a time, and leave some openings for interesting titles that pop up in the newspaper or recommendations from friends. If you’re in a book club, I’d love to hear how you choose your titles.

Tagged books, celebrations, Christmas, cocktails, decorating, food, holidays

Jan 03 2015

1 Comment

Christmas, holidays, Office Supplies, snail mail, Zines

Merry Zinemas

I think out of all of my gifts, I liked my stocking gifts the best. (Well, that’s hard to say…but they are awesome!) I mentioned here that I like to ask for zines for Christmas. My stocking was stuffed with zines, socks, postcards and a stamp. Here’s what I got:

Cats in My Neighborhood zine

Collage & Art Journal IDEAS zine

Parcel Ghost Super-Supernatural zine pack

(I’ll talk more about zines in an upcoming post, but until then, I highly recommend all of these zines!)

Donuts socks: These socks are so cozy! I gave Naoto the Beer ones a few years ago. The sock bottoms are lined with terry, giving a little extra cushion. I’ve been padding around the house in these for a few days now. I may never take them off.

Letter Writers Alliance Official Seal Stamp: I love all of my LWA stamps and I’m so excited to have one with my member number on it. I’m ready to send more mail in 2015!

Victory Garden postcards: I’m excited to NOT hoard these!

So that was my stocking. Santa Naoto did a great job, as usual. One more Christmas post…and then we can put the holidays behind us!

P.S. Though some of the makers (of the zines & stamp) are friends and acquaintances, this post wasn’t sponsored by anyone but me. 🙂

Tagged Christmas, gardening, holidays, mail art, office supplies, rubber stamp, shopping, snail mail, zines

Jan 02 2015

2 Comments

Christmas, holidays, vintage

The Christmas Gifts 2014

I wish I could promise you this is the last Christmas post…almost!

For Christmas, Naoto surprised me with an Instax printer. If you don’t know, Instax are similar to Polaroids. You can buy an Instax camera, but I wanted the convenience of printing pictures from my phone so Naoto picked the printer for me. (As much fun as it sounds to have an Instax camera, I know I would never carry around an extra camera.) The printer links wirelessly with my iPhone and I can print tiny instant pictures wherever I want. The pictures are about the size of a credit card, perfect for memory keeping (ahem, scrapbooking) and mailing to friends. My first picture is of our Christmas Eve cocktails and I can’t wait to print some more. The printer is small, so it will be perfect to take on vacation so I can have some instant access to pictures of my food and drinks (heehee) to accent my travel journals. Naoto also got me this vintage table runner. I am in love with the one from our anniversary, and I imagine this one will be great to use in the spring. It coordinates nicely with my vintage dishes in the china cabinet. He also got us another pair of Blackhawks tickets…this year we are going on January 16! I can’t wait! I gave Naoto some practical gifts–snow boots and new jeans. (Un-pictured because snooooze!) I also gave him the shirt pictured above (which for the record, is less about the Chicago Bears than it is about Mike Ditka and the Superfans from the old SNL days. If you’d like to watch a Superfan clip, here it is…maybe it’s only funny if you’re from Illinois though?)I also got him a Resketch notebook and a ninja sticker for work. The Resketch notebook is really neat–it’s made from recycled papers like building plans and Braille sheets. There are also a few creative prompts mixed throughout the book. Naoto takes notes at work, so I thought it might be a fun gift. (Also, Shawn, the seller, was really super and I like to support super people with super ideas.) I bought both the t-shirt and the notebook at Show of Hands this fall. I found this rice cooker key chain at Renegade this summer. It’s from Mehoi, who has so many cute designs. I’m kind of regretting not getting him a pin instead because he’s already said the key chain is too nice to use.

I feel good about our gifts this year. Other than the snow boots, jeans and Instax, all of our gifts came from independent makers and sellers. Tomorrow I’ll share the stocking stuffers. Santa outdid himself with tiny treasures this year!

Tagged Christmas, holidays, office supplies, photography, shopping, vintage